KUALA LUMPUR, July 31 — Bursa Malaysia ended higher on Friday as investors continued to accumulate blue-chip stocks in line with stronger performances across most regional markets.

At 5pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) rose 4.50 points to 1,724.90 from yesterday’s close of 1,720.40.

The benchmark index opened 0.83 of a point higher at 1,721.23, and moved between 1,715.67 and 1,730.12 throughout the day.

The broader market was positive with gainers outpacing losers 713 to 407, while 558 counters were unchanged, 1,063 untraded and 56 suspended.

Turnover expanded to 3.10 billion units valued at RM3.57 billion from 2.49 billion units valued at RM2.25 billion on Thursday.

Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd vice-president of equity research Thong Pak Leng noted that across the region, most major indices closed in positive territory with strong gains in South Korea, while the Bank of Japan’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged was largely in line with market expectations.

Regionally, South Korea’s Kospi Composite Index surged 17.91 per cent to 6,595.45, Japan’s Nikkei 225 soared 4.03 per cent to 64,362.02, and Shanghai’s SSE Composite Index improved 0.72 per cent to 3,832.26, Indonesia’s IDX Composite Index inched up 0.80 per cent to 6,236.13, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.10 per cent to 25,884.43.

Meanwhile, Singapore’s Straits Times Index declined 0.79 per cent to 5,628.50.

On the domestic front, Thong said sentiment has improved following the return of foreign buying, providing additional support to the local market.

“Blue chips have the strongest fundamentals and high turnaround for the past two days,” he told Bernama.

Among the heavyweights, Maybank added two sen to RM10.90, Public Bank perked up one sen to RM5.17, CIMB added six sen to RM7.89, IHH Healthcare was unchanged to RM8.35, while Tenaga Nasional fell two sen to RM14.60.

As for the active stocks, Zetrix AI put on three sen to 74.5 sen, Nationgate climbed six sen to RM1.19, V.S Industry edged up one sen each to 23 sen, TWL inched up half-a-sen to 2.5 sen, and Inari Amertron increased 10 sen to RM2.22.

Of the lead gainers, Malaysian Pacific Industries garnered RM3.00 to RM46.00, Nestlé gained RM1.60 to RM101.10, ViTrox jumped 70 sen to RM8.70, UMS Integration leapt 51 sen to RM7.35, and Petronas Dagangan advanced 32 sen to RM19.52.

Hong Leong Industries led the losers list, falling 28 sen to RM17.72, Allianz Malaysia lost 20 sen to RM21.00, Kuala Lumpur Kepong eased 18 sen to RM21.02, Concrete Engineering Products slid 14 sen to RM3.32, and MISC fell 13 sen to RM7.99. 

On the index board, the FBM Emas Index increased 57.46 points to 12,751.79, the FBM Top 100 Index rose 53.80 points to 12,585.11, and the FBM Mid 70 Index jumped 167.0 points to 18,135.79.

The FBM Emas Shariah Index advanced 65.80 points to 12,596.29 and the FBM ACE Index garnered 51.91 points to 4,974.68.

Sector-wise, the Industrial Products and Services Index edged up 1.74 points to 188.74, the Energy Index inched up 4.66 points to 765.72, and the Financial Services Index put on 73.83 points to 20,327.64, while the Plantation Index slipped 38.48 points to 9,288.57.

The Main Market volume expanded to 1.50 billion units valued at RM3.24 billion compared to 1.19 billion units valued at RM1.98 billion on Thursday.

Warrants turnover jumped to 1.08 billion units worth RM139.50 million versus 863.66 million units worth RM122.51 million previously.

The ACE Market volume increased to 509.99 million units valued at RM189.47 million from 425.20 million units valued at RM153.01 million yesterday.

Consumer products and services counters accounted for 155.24 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products and services (313.05 million), construction (81.83 million), technology (357.44 million), financial services (142.45 million), property (154.63 million), plantation (25.38 million), real estate investment trusts (29.87 million), closed-end fund (324,700), energy (64.71 million), healthcare (37.45 million), telecommunications and media (51.28 million), transportation and logistics (59.0 million), utilities (34.56 million), and business trusts (20,100). — Bernama